KEVIN Stone is hoping to confirm what the future holds for him at Marlow in the next week.

He has left team affairs in the hands of his assistant Steve Croxford after the death of his father Peter three weeks ago.

Croxford will take care of things for Saturday's trip to local rivals Chalfont St Peter, with Stone due to speak to club chairman Terry Staines next week.

Stone told the Bucks Free Press: "I haven't been at the club for four or five weeks. I had a meeting with the chairman five weeks ago to inform him things had taken a turn for the worse with my dad and he said to take as much time away from the club as I need.

"I spoke to him at the funeral, but it wasn't to do with football, and I haven't spoken to him since.

"This situation can't go on forever. The club have been good and I don't want to abuse that, but the way things have been panning out, a decision will need to be made sooner rather than later.

"My assistant's been there a few years and I've left it with him. He's more than capable of carrying on.

"I won't be going to training this week so it wouldn't be fair to turn up on Saturday and have a say on what Steve's doing."

Stone's father died on October 19 after a long battle against cancer, aged 67.

He captained the side during the 60s and 70s before Stone junior followed him into the team.

He said: "It puts things into my perspective from my point of view. At the moment picking a football team and upsetting people by leaving them out isn't top of my agenda.

"He'd been ill for a little while but it had been gathering momentum the last few weeks.

"He played for Marlow for years - I used to be mascot when he played and he used to come and watch when I played. He would still come and watch up until the start of this season.

"He was there for about 90 per cent of the home games last season before he started to struggle mobility-wise. He enjoyed supporting the team. It's a big loss."

In Stone's absence from the dugout Marlow have been winless in six matches and were eliminated from the Berks and Bucks Senior Cup on Tuesday after a 3-1 home defeat to Hungerford.

They dipped into the bottom three of the Southern League Central Division after a 5-3 loss at home to Rugby Town on Saturday, with Jermaine Roche bagging a brace and Gavin James scoring the other.